Today, the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) and partner organisations have written to Director Raimondas Andrijauskas and Deputy Director Danguolė Morkūnienė of the Lithuanian State Data Protection Inspectorate (SDPI)’s to express concern at their attempted obstruction of investigative project “Karštos Pėdos” (“Hot Feet”)’s journalistic activity.

Data guards threaten the journalist project “Hot Feet” with fines.
Under the pretext of personal data, relying on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is becoming an antonym for transparency, the State Data Protection Inspectorate (SDPI) continues to obstruct journalists in fulfilling their duty to protect the public interest and the public’s right to know. Now its target is the journalistic project “Hot Feet”.

In light of the Omicron COVID-19 variant outbreak in Lithuania and in the region, the Mediathon, an international training for the journalists, is postponed to the end of March. The organizers’ main concern is to guarantee the health of all participants and ensure a high level of attendance of journalists from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Latvia.

The Future Stories Award celebrates and recognises the achievements of investigative journalism, those that have just revealed something new and unnoticed or already shook things up. Looking for outstanding investigative works in several categories, the Future Stories Award is a unique opportunity for Lithuanian and Slovak journalists working in this field and focusing on the local stories of important but often less visible topics.

Are you looking for inspiration for 2022 investigations? Join Mediathlon training event in Lithuania which is an opportunity to celebrate investigative journalism, improve data analysis skills and expand your professional network.

The Future Story Awards 2021 will honor the excellence in investigative journalism in Lithuania and Slovakia on February 3rd, 2022, during the ceremony in Vilnius.

Mediathlon – a week-long training brought together journalists and media experts to dive into investigative and data journalism.

Mediathon – an opportunity to acquire and exchange know-how in investigative journalism.

A brand new award has been launched to celebrate and recognise the achievements of investigative journalism, those that have just revealed something new and unnoticed or already shook things up.

Looking for outstanding investigative works in several categories, the Future Stories Award is a unique opportunity for Lithuanian and Slovak journalists working in this field and focusing on the local stories of important but often less visible topics.
You can submit your work until 1 October 2021.

A brand new award has been launched to celebrate and recognise the achievements of investigative journalism, those that have just revealed something new and unnoticed or already shook things up.

Looking for outstanding investigative works in several categories, the Future Stories Award is a unique opportunity for Lithuanian and Slovak journalists working in this field and focusing on the local stories of important but often less visible topics.

Participants of the Media4Change’s Investigative journalism competition from Lithuania and Slovakia spent 36 hours per week on understanding the principles of investigative journalism, exploring various important topics in their fields of interest, deepening analytical skills and networking with like-minded people. A workshop week full of inspiring and creative online workshops and discussions was the final element of the second stage of the Investigative journalism competition. During the sessions 15 teams from Lithuania and 9 from Slovakia improved their investigations’ plans for the final evaluation.

Local Investigative Journalism Competition 2021 is moving to its next phase! Media4Change and European Dialogue are delighted to see that a large number of journalists have shown interest in the Competition.

Have you ever wanted to dive deep into investigative journalism and bring a story that needs deeper analysis to light but never had a proper chance or needed competences to take the first step? We give you the opportunity to do exactly that – Media4Change and European dialogue is launching Investigative Journalism Competition to fund collaborative journalistic investigations. Collaborative teams made of journalists, whose curiosity and attention reaches further than major cities in Lithuania or Slovakia, will share up to EUR 16.000 in each country to implement their investigations.

The creation of the Future Story Lab, an innovative platform aiming to build the capacity of journalists and media makers, and to create a space for professional networking and collaboration for quality media production, is progressing.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) team writes about our database ‘Hot Feet’, that connects politically exposed persons with government spending.